DVD Recorder |Panasonic DMR-ES15 review

Panasonic has released their DMR-ES15 DVD recorder at the latest CES show.Where they want to make a difference is with their new HDAVI-control functions meaning getting rid of wires and multiple remote controls.

HDMI and Panasonic’s new HDAVI-Control function are integral parts of Panasonic’s solution focused approach. The digital connection allows consumers to connect multiple components, such as the award-winning Panasonic plasma television and Panasonic home theater receiver, permitting the user to move away from multiple wires and remotes and control their components with a single operation.

Panasonic is aiming for high picture quality  for the 2006 line of recorders. An example of the picture-enhancing feature is the new HD Resolution . When connected to an HDMI compatible display, the images are converted to 720p or 1080i the holy grail of HDTV picture quality. Which gives beautiful, high-resolution images that are perfect for HD flat TV.

Plays pre-recorded DVD's & CD's
Analogue TV tuner built in with RF pass through
Super Multi-Format Recording & Playback
4x Natural Gradation
2x LP Horizontal Resolution (500 Lines)
1 Second Quick Start for Recording,helps when you want to record straight away and having to wait for the the dvd recorder to read the disc which can be a pain.
Plays pre-recorded DVD's & CD's,pretty standard stuff
Chasing playback allows you to watch the start of a program while still recording it
Non-linear editing
MP3 Playback
2ch DVD-Audio Playback
Records on DVD-RAM & lower cost DVD-R,keep the cost down.
Auto DVD-R Finalizing
Auto recording from DV input
Will make discs that will play in most existing DVD players (DVD-R only)
Simultaneous playback while recording is possible (DVD-RAM)
Uses the single layer 4.7GB DVD-R (once only) system and DVD-RAM 4.7Gb systems
Records in real-time using MPEGII compression-Up to 8 hours per disc,but quality can decease when extending recording time.
Quick recording function automatically finds the blank part of the disc,better management of disc's
Variable Data rate settings
Flexible recording mode (VBR) for optimised bitrate for the type and length of recording
Built-in time base corrector that delivers highly stable, natural images
Front A/V input
DV input
Full RGB in and out
Flexible recording mode allows you to manually a time for recording and the player will set the best possible bit rate for that time, say 1 hour 15 minutes to fill a disc
PAL & NTSC Progressive Scan Output

Price will be about $249.95

Comments

[VanguardLH]

Died after 2 months and after 67 recordings

Pros: Good set of features at good price, great set of connection types

Cons:Pwr button under tray, title wrap, no frame advance

Liked having SVHS on every input and output. Bought at $170 which was good price for the features (connection types, supported formats).

While you can slow-mo through the movie, there is now single-frame advance. You have to slo-mo up to the frame and hit Pause hoping you hit the frame that you want, like when choosing the menu image for the title. To advance, you have to slow-mo again and hit Pause but you might miss the next frame. You cannot see how the title will wrap when presented in the main menu of titles, and you cannot insert linebreaks so words don't get chopped across lines. The power button is under the extended tray so you cannot get at it to power down (and have the tray retracted). Instead you have to hit the eject button and then power down. The remote is a bit difficult to use for its arrow keys to move through the menus or onscreen objects. Many key pushes are missed even when pointing the remote directly at the unit from a couple feet away. When moving around the screen to select characters, you'll often miss the character while moving around or end up selecting the wrong one because the movement doesn't match the number of times that you depressed the arrow button on the remote. The button is oversized to the switch in the middle, so pressing anywhere other than directly in the middle could mean a lost button press. There is no Eject/Insert button on the remote so you must use the button on the base unit. One-touch recording lets you select at increments of half an hour but only goes up to 4 hours (but EP recording mode can lay 8 hours on the recordable DVD). Once you schedule a timed recording, you cannot edit it. If you make a mistake, you have to delete the event and start from scratch. Since you have to do the math to figure the end time if all you know is the start time and movie length along with having to input a long title, this results in losing a LOT of button presses just so you can, for example, change the end time.

This unit died after 67 recordings. It wasn't a problem with the DVD-R discs. It was a problem with the head getting stuck. The lens assembly would not extend over the inserted disc. There were 5 chirps (4 lower tone and 1 higher tone) which sounded like the lens was unsuccessfuly attempting 4 times to move out from its parked position and the last chirp was to repark the lens. These chirps would occur whether there was a disc inserted or not; i.e., the unit could no longer tell if there was a disc in the tray. Powering up without an inserted disc used to be quiet (because there was no disc to read from) but now it chirps on power up. It chirps when a disc is inserted but it can't see a disc is inserted. The first time this occurred an error said there was a problem with the disc but also displayed a "U61" error message (there was a pwr failure or the AC cord is disconnected while powered on). That went away but the unit could still not read any discs, and powering down and back up (several times) to reset the unit did not work. The unit refused to work anymore because it couldn't unpark its lens assembly so it never saw that a disc was inserted into the tray. This was after 59 days and 67 DVD-R recordings. Sure wish now that I had bought the lemon warranty plan at BestBuy.

Would have highly rated the unit but it doesn't last. Now I have to call Panasonic and pay for the shipping to have it returned for repair or replacement. A good warranty is one that you don't use. The unit was in constant use most every day while I was converting all my VHS tapes to DVD-R but I don't consider 67 recordings to be a high count of usage.

[sim minnoye]

Exactly the same with my es15.
Broke after +- 80 hours .
Apparently the motor gets no command to turn when a disc is inserted, or starting up.
What can we do ?

[mjthekop]

Died after 6 months huh!
Pros: Good set of features at good price, great set of connection types

Cons:Pwr button under tray, title wrap, no frame advance

Liked having SVHS on every input and output. Bought at INR 12,000 which is equal to $272 from a grey market which was good price for the featuresame problem ocured as mention by VanguardLH.

[Janos]

This model sohws very good features, but only if it works.
I have also U61. I did my best, but the unit has not recovered yet.
What should I do? Call Panasonic or there's a trick to reset this error code?

[Jeff]

I had the SAME problem. I loved it until it broke...

[Anthony]

I loved the DMR-ES15 but it only lasted 6 months before it stopped ready any disk.

[John C Estes]

My cousin had one - didn't last long. U61 error as well.
Cost to fix out of warranty more than machine is worth!

[John]

third and last panasonic dvd recorder coming into my house Still have one old E75V that the DVD side works but the vhs died years ago, still good for fast rewinding but that's it. The ES15S was a piece of junk from day one, should have called the junk man 1st day It read can't read, or no disc inserted, unformatted disc and some other crap. If you do get it when it is in a good mood and everything seems ok then you program it to record, chances are you will get squat! Also have a TOSHIBA that is not great but better then the panasonic. So far a JVC seems to be the best I've had yet